1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of cooking and, more specifically, to a rack configured to enhance access and manipulation of products resting upon the rack within an oven cavity.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Typically, cooking appliances designed for household use are provided with one or more racks for supporting food items to be cooked within an oven cavity. The oven cavity itself is generally provided with a plurality of vertically spaced side wall rails for supporting respective lateral sides of the rack, while permitting the rack to be vertically adjusted. That is, the rack can slide along a selected set of support rails for movement into and out of the oven cavity, with the rack also being removable for cleaning or for repositioning at a different height.
Oven racks are often of wire frame construction. More specifically, a typical oven rack would be defined by an outer wire frame and a support platform constituted by a plurality of fore-to-aft extending and laterally spaced wires. Typically, the wires are substantially evenly spaced across the entire rack and extend in a common plane so as to define a platform for use in supporting food items in the oven cavity.
During a cooking operation, a food item may need to be repositioned on a rack. That is, in order to ensure even heating, the food item, which is either directly supported on the rack or arranged on a tray, pan or dish placed on the rack, must be rotated or otherwise shifted on the rack. During a repositioning operation, the rack itself can interfere with the easy manipulation of the food item. For example, it may be desired to rotate or remove a pie from an oven cavity. In doing so, it would be advantageous to have ready access to a bottom portion of the pie so that contact with the crust can be avoided and the contents of the pie left substantially undisturbed. Without access to the bottom of the pie pan, it may become necessary to tilt the pie, which can result in spilling or otherwise disturbing the contents of the pie, or damage to the crust by gripping upper portions of the pie.
Another example would be the need to remove or manipulate a large roasting pan. In this situation, the rack must either be withdrawn from the oven to gain clear access to handles located on side portions of the pan or the pan must be shifted by pushing/pulling side portions thereof. Given the thin profile of oven racks, grasping and shifting the oven rack out of the oven cavity can be difficult. This problem is exacerbated by the need to wear oven mitts that generally do not allow a great deal of tactile manipulation. Likewise, gripping internal portions of the pan is also difficult. The size, thickness, and lack of mobility can make gripping inside portions of a pan, particularly with oven mitts, tricky and often times an awkward endeavor.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for an oven rack constructed in a manner which enhances a consumer's ability to readily access a food item being cooked upon the rack in an oven. U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,997 discloses an oven rack which addresses this concern by providing the rack with a frontal notch. The notch is arranged in the plane of the oven rack to provide some enhanced access from beneath items traversing the notch. Regardless of the known prior art, there is still seen to exist a need in the art for an oven rack that enables a consumer to more readily access lower portions of a food item to facilitate manipulation of the food item relative to the oven rack, while preferably also providing for enhanced gripping or engaging of the oven rack for sliding movement into and out of the oven cavity as desired.